Heated leather seat wiring + switches

[synXero]

Hi all,

Wanting to know a little about the heated leather seats in the MK3. I have read a little about their installation into cars without heated leather seats, but I am planning a slightly more ambitious install, into a MK2...

I am curious as to how likely it is that I can get a hold of the wiring necessary to link the seat's wiring into a switch?

I considered where I would wire the seats into. One option was the cigarette lighter, because then I can't flatten the battery by leaving them on. On the other hand, I reckon it'd be cooler to have them run off the battery directly so they can be run without the ignition, that way enabling my lovely lady friend to keep her cheeks toasted whilst keys are not in.

Thoughts, please!

[toxo]

You'll have to run them through a relay, they will be far too high current to run from anything else.

Take a wire from the cigarette lighter, to a switch, to the relay. Take a high current feed straight off the battery to the other side of the relay.

I fitted an aftermarket seat heater kit into my MK2 and it required about 30A with both seats on high heat - take that from the cigarette lighter and you'll be popping fuses left right and centre!

I'm not sure what you're planning to do about switches (retain the MK3 switches or fit custom ones) but you can easily wire an LED into the switch as well, so you know when you've left them on (or more accurately, when your passenger has left theirs on - it should be fairly obvious when yours is on!) which I did in my install.

[synXero]

Yes I would be wiring in lighting/using switches that feature lighting. Dad's Sub has a great heated leather seat switch, though it's dual action fancy pancy stuff.

Would it be possible to get a gradiated switch type thing involved?
http://media.caranddriver.com/images/10 ... 80x782.jpg

Thanks for your advice, I'll be coming back to you for more help for sure.

Did you do your install using MK3 heated leather seats, or just applying heating pads into MK2 seats?

[toxo]

Variable switch is a bit cleverer than the kit I installed, which just had 2 heater circuits. One switch position went through 1 circuit, the other went through both.

I did it in aftermarket seats.

See http://www.imoc.co.uk/forums/viewtopic. ... ght=heated

[rbuckingham]

if i remember those switches correctly they just a variable resistor so you just wire up the pads with all heating pads to the live from the switch and it will put down more power the warmer you want it

[BLZ-8027]

Ive got a heater element that i removed from a MK3 seat, if you want it